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Patients will be able to speak to gender identity clinic over Skype in radical plan to meet demand

An NHS gender identity clinic for children and young people is experimenting with Skype appointments to help meet growing demand.

The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), based in London and Leeds, is the only specialised service in the UK for children and young people up to 18 years old.

In recent years the service has seen an “unprecedented increase” in its number of referrals. As a result, the average waiting time for an initial appointment currently stands at between 22 and 24 months.

In an attempt to tackle these long waiting times, and to help families who face a lengthy journey to one of its clinics, GIDS is testing appointments over Skype and FaceTime.